A local development group wants to create a business incubator that would help small companies and foster potential new growth in and around Hagerstown's struggling downtown. At an informational meeting Monday, James A. Mills, chairman of Cascade Management Group Inc. of Hagerstown, said a business incubator could help bring jobs and new economic development opportunities to Washington County. On average, successful incubators add about 90 jobs to an area, he said. “Our downtown is decaying,” Mills said.

City officials on Tuesday revealed preliminary designs for a downtown small-business incubator site on West Washington Street - a project that has been in the planning stages for years. Downtown Manager Andrew Sargent said the plan is to build out the roughly 2,800-square-foot middle section of 60 W. Washington St. by January 2014 using the remaining $173,000 from the $174,579 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise Grant the city was awarded in September 2012. Sargent said $100,000 of the grant remains for equipment and furnishing, and $73,000 remains for construction.

A building that once housed a pharmacy in downtown Hagerstown might help the city boost economic development. The Hagerstown City Council Tuesday unanimously approved spending $220,000 to purchase the former CVS building at 60 W. Washington St. as a business incubator space for downtown. The city has proposed an adaptive reuse project for the property to help support business growth and redevelopment in the city center. Hagerstown will use a mix of downtown revitalization funds, capital improvement funds and a Maryland Community Legacy Grant to buy the building, according to city documents.

The next two phases of Hagerstown's business incubator project on West Washington Street will be partially funded using $275,000 in prior city bond proceeds, the Hagerstown City Council decided Tuesday night. The five-member council agreed to reprogram the remainder of its $1.4 million in unspent 2009 bond proceeds to fund the incubator after learning the federal government denied a grant for the project. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in September denied a city application for a $460,000 matching Rural Enterprise Grant to fund renovations to the business incubator at 60 W. Washington St., the former CVS building, said John Lestitian, city director of community and economic development.

The Hagerstown City Council has its eye on the old CVS building on Washington Street to help boost downtown development. The council Tuesday discussed a possible purchase of the building at 60 W. Washington St., where most recently CVS operated a pharmacy. It will vote on the purchase next Tuesday. John Lestitian, director of community and economic development, said the city would use the building as a business incubator space to help spur economic development along West Washington Street.

The University System of Maryland at Hagerstown will expand operations into an adjacent city-owned building downtown, city and university officials said Tuesday. With the city council's approval of the lease agreement expected next week, USMH will move into 60 W. Washington St. as the rear anchor tenant of the city's small business incubator, adding space for three new classrooms, office space for faculty members and a new common area. The initial lease is for five years, which began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2017, at an annual rent of $27,000 for the use of 2,700 square feet in the rear of the former CVS building, according to Christy Blake, the city's Downtown Business Recruitment and Retention Manager.

Hagerstown's front anchor tenant for its business incubator on West Washington Street opened for business Wednesday. Think reInk, a Chambersburg, Pa.-based ink-cartridge refilling company, opened in the former CVS building at 60 W. Washington St. Wednesday, about 60 days after the company announced that it was coming to Hagerstown. "It's pretty impressive to come together in that time frame," said Nathan Rotz, the company's president and chief executive officer. The company had targeted expansion in the Hagerstown area for this summer, in time for back-to-school season, he said.

The Technical Innovation Center opened in 1994, adjacent to the Advanced Technology Center at Hagerstown Community College. Its mission is to foster higher wage employment opportunities by aiding technology and manufacturing businesses during their startup years. The center focuses on software and information technology companies. The $2.2 million Technical Innovation Center - better known as the college's "business incubator" - leases manufacturing and office space to new and expanding businesses and provides management and financial guidance to entrepreneurs in the Quad-State area.

A business incubator being proposed for a former CVS building at 60 W. Washington St. in Hagerstown should be used to help launch businesses like a bookstore and a business that specializes in website design, according to a group of people that met at a downtown restaurant Tuesday afternoon. The idea of a bookstore, a shop that sells school supplies, and a place where students can buy food and coffee would be a hit among people at the nearby University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, the school's executive director said during the meeting.

More than 50 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday afternoon, formally recognizing a University System of Maryland at Hagerstown expansion into a new building in the heart of the city's downtown. USMH enrollment numbers are up, by about 14 percent this past fall, and approximately 500 students are currently taking classes, according to Mark Halsey, executive director of USMH. “And we are seeing every reason to believe that we'll see probably close to that same growth level again next fall,” Halsey said after the ceremony, which was attended by numerous local elected and educational officials as well as community and business leaders.

City officials on Tuesday revealed preliminary designs for a downtown small-business incubator site on West Washington Street - a project that has been in the planning stages for years. Downtown Manager Andrew Sargent said the plan is to build out the roughly 2,800-square-foot middle section of 60 W. Washington St. by January 2014 using the remaining $173,000 from the $174,579 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise Grant the city was awarded in September 2012. Sargent said $100,000 of the grant remains for equipment and furnishing, and $73,000 remains for construction.

To attract the Washington County Board of Education central office complex to downtown, Hagerstown Mayor David Gysberts said the city was willing to acquire land, demolish undesirable buildings, build a parking deck and fast-track the project. It could have added up to millions of dollars worth of incentives, not to mention a valuable workaround of the city's notoriously difficult permitting and regulatory process. It wasn't enough to entice the school board to move its offices downtown, but it could be enough to lure others.

More than 50 people attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday afternoon, formally recognizing a University System of Maryland at Hagerstown expansion into a new building in the heart of the city's downtown. USMH enrollment numbers are up, by about 14 percent this past fall, and approximately 500 students are currently taking classes, according to Mark Halsey, executive director of USMH. “And we are seeing every reason to believe that we'll see probably close to that same growth level again next fall,” Halsey said after the ceremony, which was attended by numerous local elected and educational officials as well as community and business leaders.

The City of Hagerstown has been selected to receive a $174,579 grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to complete its Small Business Incubator on West Washington Street, a city official said Tuesday. City Community Development Manager Jonathan Kerns spoke before the Hagerstown City Council during a work session to seek direction in accepting the USDA's Rural Business Enterprise Grant, which eluded the city a year ago. The council gave Kerns the go-ahead to proceed. “It's a very large sum of money,” Kerns said.

The University System of Maryland at Hagerstown will expand operations into an adjacent city-owned building downtown, city and university officials said Tuesday. With the city council's approval of the lease agreement expected next week, USMH will move into 60 W. Washington St. as the rear anchor tenant of the city's small business incubator, adding space for three new classrooms, office space for faculty members and a new common area. The initial lease is for five years, which began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2017, at an annual rent of $27,000 for the use of 2,700 square feet in the rear of the former CVS building, according to Christy Blake, the city's Downtown Business Recruitment and Retention Manager.

Less than two weeks after a company that announced plans to start a business incubator in Hagerstown met with city and financial representatives, one of its principles says the makeup of the group has changed and the project has been put on hold. Cascade Management Group Inc., a newly formed Hagerstown company that was established April 4 as a business development entity, says it has severed ties with Perry Ealim, president and CEO of Merge Business Development Systems Inc., who had been providing pro-bono guidance for Cascade.

A local development group wants to create a business incubator that would help small companies and foster potential new growth in and around Hagerstown's struggling downtown. At an informational meeting Monday, James A. Mills, chairman of Cascade Management Group Inc. of Hagerstown, said a business incubator could help bring jobs and new economic development opportunities to Washington County. On average, successful incubators add about 90 jobs to an area, he said. “Our downtown is decaying,” Mills said.

CNB Financial Services Inc. Thomas F. Rokisky, president and chief executive officer of CNB Financial Services Inc., the parent company of CNB Bank Inc., announced for the three months ending Sept. 30, CNB had consolidated net income of $537,000, or $1.27 per share, as compared to $464,000, or $1.05 per share, for the three months ending Sept. 30, 2010. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2011, CNB had consolidated net income of $1.5 million, or $3.60 per share, compared to $1.3 million, or $2.97 per share, for the nine months ending Sept.

The next two phases of Hagerstown's business incubator project on West Washington Street will be partially funded using $275,000 in prior city bond proceeds, the Hagerstown City Council decided Tuesday night. The five-member council agreed to reprogram the remainder of its $1.4 million in unspent 2009 bond proceeds to fund the incubator after learning the federal government denied a grant for the project. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in September denied a city application for a $460,000 matching Rural Enterprise Grant to fund renovations to the business incubator at 60 W. Washington St., the former CVS building, said John Lestitian, city director of community and economic development.

Hagerstown's front anchor tenant for its business incubator on West Washington Street opened for business Wednesday. Think reInk, a Chambersburg, Pa.-based ink-cartridge refilling company, opened in the former CVS building at 60 W. Washington St. Wednesday, about 60 days after the company announced that it was coming to Hagerstown. "It's pretty impressive to come together in that time frame," said Nathan Rotz, the company's president and chief executive officer. The company had targeted expansion in the Hagerstown area for this summer, in time for back-to-school season, he said.